Eliminate Toxic Children Toys
TOXIC CHILDREN TOYS IN NEPAL
CEPHED tested 100 toys made of plastic, metals, clay, fibers, wood, foam, rubber etc and collected from street vendor to shopping malls, departmental stores, educational enterprises and dedicated dealers supplying the children to most of the schools at Nepal Handicraft Testing Laboratory, A public Private Partnership model laboratory operated by Federation of Handicraft Associations of Nepal (FHAN) and Nepal Bureau of Standard and Metrology (NBSM), Ministry of Industry, Government of Nepal., Balaju, Kathmandu with XRF (X-Ray Fluorescence) Spectroscopy.
According the research finding, 54% of the toys tested have found to be contaminated with several heavy metals like Lead, Mercury, Cadmium, Chromium and Bromine. Out of positive result of chemical contaminated toys samples, 28 samples contain Lead, 1 Samples contains Mercury, 9 samples contain Cadmium, 14 samples contain Chromium and 40 samples contain Bromine.
Additionally, 54% samples have At Least ONE Chemical, 27 % have at least TWO chemicals, 11 % of samples have at least THREE chemicals and 1 % samples have at least FOUR Chemicals in them. So the toys have multiple chemicals contamination to the health concern level.
Only 29 % of the samples does have some labelling rest 71 % does not bears any labelling.
In 21st Century, children are getting exposed to toxic chemicals in absence of responsible government agencies and required act, regulation and standard despite of country being party to Convention on Right of the Children (CRC) since 1990 and dedicated Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare, Department of Women and Children and Central Child Welfare Board and many other concerned agencies is quite disturbing factors and shame for all of us.
Press-release CEPHED CiP Nepal July 21 2018
GOVERNMENT RESPONSES
Based on research finding CEPHED first ever conducted in Nepal, mass media campaign, advocacy and follow up with all concerned government agencies were done. Responding to our advocacy letter to the Office of Prime Minister and Council of Ministers (OPMCM) along with all other concerned ministries, on 6th August 2013, OPMCM called a high secretaries level meeting under the chairman ship of Mr. Udhhab Prasad Devkota, Secretary, OPMCM including the representative from CEPHED. The meeting precisely heard our presentation of the actual situation of the toxic toys problem on children health in Nepal and immediate took very much progressive decision. The decision broadly includes following four points: Recognizing the problem of toxic toys with presence of toxic chemicals like Lead, Mercury, Cadmium, Chromium and Bromine related based on our research report; immediate banning of toys without labelling at least about the manufacturing country and manufacturers; market monitoring; formulation and effective implementation of standard for all the chemicals possibly used in children toys with in 6 month; and also directed all the concerned authorities to publish and broadcasting of public notice and advertisement for massive public awareness about the impact of toxic chemicals in children toys.
On behalf of the children of Nepal, CEPHED thank the Government of Nepal, OPMCM and others government agencies, Media personals, Consumer and Professional associations for their efforts for taking initiatives to address these toxic toys issues. We are still awaiting these decisions to be fully executed and implemented towards ensuring the right to play safe of children of Nepal, the future of our country.
Department of Information, MOICS Notice and Toys Standard of Nepal
Department of Information issues a public notice not to import, sale, distribute, purchase and use of toxic chemicals. Ministry of Population and Environment enacted mandatory standard of 12 Heavy metals and chemicals in toys being produced, imported, sold and used in Nepal on 16th January 2017 and became effective since 15th July 2017. Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development issued a circular in the name of all local government including Metropolitan Cities, Municipalities to check all the toys for their chemicals constituents in their respective working area. CEPHED wish to have responsible actions and regular monitoring of import, sale, distribution and market monitoring toward ensuring effective implementation of this Mandatory Toys Standard in Nepal.